United Kingdom: the government study that examined 84 ritual-abuse allegations — and what it actually found
Record class
Context only
Evidence status
Official finding
Authority role
the UK Department of Health, commissioning an independent academic study
Organization
UK Department of Health
Spiritual nexus
The finding matters precisely because it is nuanced: ritual was real in a small number of cases, but as a mechanism of control rather than as worship — which is close to how this corpus defines the criterion, arrived at independently by a government study.
- Violent occult ideology or sacrifice
- Institutional obedience or isolation
Evidence structure
Proceedings
1994-01-01 · published findings
United Kingdom — Department of Health commissioned study (Prof. Jean La Fontaine). Professor Jean La Fontaine examined eighty-four alleged cases of ritual or satanic abuse drawn from police, social-services and NSPCC records for 1988 to 1991, together with interviews. Three of the eighty-four were substantiated as involving genuine organised abuse — and none of those three met the satanic or devil-worship criterion. Where ritual elements were present, the study found them to be instruments of control and intimidation, with a sexual motive underlying the abuse rather than religious worship.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- ritual elements found, where they existed at all, to be instruments of control and intimidation rather than religious worship
Primary record
Sources
- official commission finding government study Jean La Fontaine, 'The Extent and Nature of Organised and Ritual Sexual Abuse' (UK Department of Health, 1994) — study summary and findings.
The commissioned study's own findings on the 84 examined cases.
Related record
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